Bio
Perry King is an American actor best known for his lead role as Cody Allen on the eighties television action series Riptide.
He also played the roles of Hayley Armstrong in the fourth season of Melrose Place (1995), and Richard Williams in the television series Titans (2000).
He has made guest appearances in numerous television shows, including Hawaii Five-O, Tales From The Crypt, The Outer Limits, Spin City, Will & Grace, Eve, Without A Trace, Cold Case and Brothers & Sisters.
He auditioned for the role of Han Solo in Star Wars, but the role ultimately went to Harrison Ford. However, he was the voice of Han Solo in the radio adaptation of Star Wars.
King has appeared in the following made-for-TV movies to date:
Deadly Visitor (1973)
Foster and Laurie (1975)
The Hemingway Play (1977)
The Cracker Factory (1979)
Love's Savage Fury (1979)
City in Fear (1980)
Inmates: A Love Story (1981)
Golden Gate (1981)
The Hasty Heart (1983)
Helen Keller: The Miracle Continues (1984)
Stranded (1986)
The Man Who Lived at the Ritz (1988)
Perfect People (1988)
Shakedown on the Sunset Strip (1988)
Disaster at Silo 7 (1988)
Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer (1989)
The Knife and Gun Club (1990)
Kaleidoscope (1990)
Only One Survived (1990)
A Cry in the Night (1992)
Something to Live for: The Alison Gertz Story (1992)
Country Estates (1993)
A Stranger in the Mirror (1993)
Jericho Fever (1993)
Good King Wenceslas (1994)
She Led Two Lives (1994)
Hijacked: Flight 285 (1996)
Face of Evil (1996)
Their Second Chance (1997)
The Cowboy and the Movie Star (1998)
The Perfect Wife (2001)
Another Pretty Face (2002)
Stranger at the Door (2004)
The Perfect Neighbor (2005)
Home for the Holidays (2005)
Framed for Murder (2007)
In 1984 he was nominated for a Golden Globe award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion picture Made for Television for his performance in The Hasty Heart, co-starring Gregory Harrison and Cheryl Ladd.
In 2004 he played President Blake in the feature film The Day After Tomorrow.
Other films he has appeared in include Slaughterhouse-Five (his screen debut in 1972), The Choirboys (1977), Class of 1984 (1982), Let It Be Me (1995), Her Married Lover (1999), and The Discontents (2004).
King was born in Alliance, Ohio, in 1948.
His background features some illustrious ancestors. His mother's father was the legendary editor for Charles Scribner's Sons, Maxwell Perkins.
Perkins nurtured the careers of among others, including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Thomas Wolfe and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
Through his grandfather Perkins, King is the great great grandson of U.S. Senator William Evarts and the great great great great grandson of Roger Sherman, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence.
He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in drama at Yale University and proceeded on to Julliard to study under John Houseman.
Perry married Karen Hryharrow, his college sweetheart, when he was 19 and had a daughter, Louise, on November 5, 1970. Their marriage ended in 1980.
An avid motorcyclist with over 30 in his collection, he met Jamie Elvidge, an avid motorcyclist in her own right and one-time editor of the motorcycle magazine, American Woman Road Riding.
On June 9, 1990 they were married and in February 1992, daughter Hannah was born. The couple have since divorced.
He also enjoys auto racing and competed in several celebrity/charity events.
Perry's favourite times are spent exploring Death Valley and working on his 500+ acre ranch in northern California, which he purchased around the time he portrayed Clint Brannan in the 1998 television movie The Cowboy and the Movie Star.
In his own words, "I loved the character so much I decided to become him."